Van jokes aside, this is a dish which, in my mind, will be forever associated with the late, great Keith Floyd – it's the kind of cunningly rustic French cookery he delighted in, designed to wring every last ounce of flavour from bargain-basement ingredients. It's not going to win any prizes for thrift these days, elderly cockerels and rough local wines being hard to come by for most of us, but be reassured, this brief trip down memory lane is worth every centime.

Simon Hopkinson and Lindsay Bareham note in the preface to their recipe that "it would have to be a complete moron who managed to cock up a coq au vin," but I fear this may have been more for the sheer pleasure of the word play; it may be hard to make chicken, red wine, bacon and shallots taste bad, but equally, the dish requires thought.

The whole bird

Anthony Bourdain's coq au vin. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

The name coq au vin suggests a poule au pot type arrangement, but curiously one rarely sees the dish made with a whole bird. I discover why when I try Anthony Bourdain's recipe, from the Les Halles Cookbook, which calls for a trimmed, 1.35kg chicken, amongst about 15 other things.

"I know it looks like a lot of ingredients, and that the recipe might be complicated. Just take your time," he says reassuring. "You should, with any luck, reach a Zen-like state of pleasurable calm." (Note that this will not happen if you fail to clock the first instruction, to marinate the bird in red wine and various aromatics overnight, before cooking it for that evening's dinner party.)

Searing a chicken on all sides is hard, even with tongs – it's a cumbersome, slippery beast at the best of times and even harder to grasp when gruesomely Pinot-purple with wine. Setting it aside, I sauté onions, celery and carrot until golden brown, add flour, and then stir in the reserved marinade. The chicken then stews in this for an hour and a quarter, in which time I cook the lardons, mushrooms and pearl onions until golden brown.

"Your work is pretty much done," Bourdain chips in at this point. Twenty-six hours after I first uncorked the wine, this is not entirely true – having made a thickened red wine sauce in the onion pan, I must then strain the cooking liquid into it, swirl in 2 tbsp butter, joint the chicken, chuck in the golden bits, and then "dazzle [my] friends with [my] brilliance". The sauce is good, the chicken is tender, but there's no denying they look disappointed – chicken 'n' sauce is not what they came here for.

Coq au complex

Richard Olney's coq au vin. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

Richard Olney, author of The French Menu Cookbook, recently voted the best of all time by an Observer Food Monthly panel, observes "it is only logical that a bird no more than 2 months old, though perfect for a sauté … should be less satisfactory in a dish whose qualities depend on the flavour and gelatinous material which, over an extended period, may be drawn from the meat into a reduced and concentrated sauce." As a compromise, he suggests using leg and thigh pieces (which lend themselves better to this type of preparation than do breasts) and replacing half the wine with a "rich gelatinous veal stock".

I brown the lardons, set them aside, and then gently cook the carrot and onion pieces in their fat until soft, and then brown the chicken pieces on all sides, sprinkling them with flour towards the end. I then douse them with cognac and wine (and a reassuringly jellied stock), bring the whole lot to the boil, and then transfer it to an oven dish, scrapings and all, and stick it in there to stew for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, I cook the mushrooms and the pearl onions.

So far, so simple. However, the sauce-making process is yet in its infancy. Once it's out of the oven, and after removing the chicken and carrots from the pot, I must then strain the cooking liquid into a pan, and put it on the heat "so as to permit its contents to simmer only on one side". This encourages a skin to form, containing, Olney alleges, "fat plus other impurities" which I can then pull to the side and discard – on a regular basis for half an hour or so.

As if reading my mind, he observes tartly that this dépouillement is often avoided "because it is time-consuming and boring", which is a great pity, given it is "essential to the purity and digestibility of the sauce". That done, I may reunite the ingredients in the original dish and finish it off with a final half hour in the oven. The finished result is good – the meat falls off the thighs and legs – but the sauce, while pleasant, lacks the kind of oomph I'd hope for after such effort.

Breakthrough

Elizabeth David's coq au vin. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

My Damascene moment comes when I read Elizabeth David on the subject. After wisely observing in French Provincial Cooking that, in traditional recipes, it is "difficult to get the sauce to the right consistency without spoiling the bird by overcooking", she gives a recipe which involves making a sauce first, and then cooking the bird in it.

"Unorthodox though it may be," she admits, "this method produces an excellent coq au vin". I reduce chicken stock, wine and aromatics by half, meanwhile browning lardons, onions and chicken pieces, and then flambé the meat in cognac – a thrillingly dashing touch – and simmer it in the reduced sauce for 40 minutes. I then remove the meat and vegetables from the pot, and thicken the sauce with a beurre maniére. The sauce is rich and savoury, but there's not enough of it: the dish is undeniably dry. More work needed here, clearly.

Simple Simon

Simon Hopkinson and Lindsay Bareham use a similar method, but manage to reduce it to a mere two paragraphs: reduce the wine, aromatics and a spoonful of redcurrant jelly (no stock here), brown the chicken, then the pancetta, stew the onions and mushrooms, flame with Cognac, and then put it all together and cook for about an hour. The vegetables are a bit mushy, and I find the sauce a little bit sweet thanks to the jelly, but it's a good quick option.

The final reckoning

I'm basing my final recipe on Elizabeth David's, but using thighs and legs, à la Richard Olney, and without thickening the sauce at the end, as she and Julia Child do – this isn't a British stew, and I don't think it needs it. I've also used an all-wine sauce, because the gelatine from the bones is sufficient without the stock. Rather than marinating the chicken overnight, I'd advise making the dish the day before, as Simon and Lindsay advise, to give the flavours a chance to blend and mellow.

As its name suggests, wine is an important part of this recipe, so don't just pop down to the corner shop for a plastic bottle of cooking stuff – although it doesn't have to be from Burgundy, you'll get the best results from a silky, fruity pinot noir. If you find the finished sauce is too thin and acidic, a spoonful of redcurrant jelly, as used by Hopkinson and Bareham, should save the day – but it's easier to buy the right wine in the first place. Serve with boiled potatoes or plain rice, a green salad, and a toast to Keith.

Perfect coq au vin

Felicity's perfect coq au vin. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

Serves 4

1 bottle pinot noir
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
1 small onion, cut into quarters
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed with a knife, plus 1 peeled and finely sliced
1 bay leaf
Small bunch of thyme
1 tbsp butter
150g piece of streaky bacon, cut into thick chunks
2 tbsp plain flour
4 chicken thighs
2 chicken legs
20 baby onions or 10 shallots, peeled but left whole (drop them briefly in boiling water first to loosen the peel)
20 button mushrooms, or 10 white mushrooms, quartered
4 tbsp cognac

1. Pour the wine into a saucepan and add the carrot, celery, onion, crushed garlic, bay leaf and 4 sprigs of thyme. Bring to the boil and reduce by half, then strain and discard the flavourings.

2. Heat the butter over a medium-high flame in a large, heavy-based pan with a lid and then add the bacon. Cook until golden, then lift out with a slotted spoon and put aside. Meanwhile, tip the flour on to a plate and season well. Roll the chicken pieces in it to coat them.

3. Put the chicken in the pan, in batches if necessary, and brown well on all sides, then lift out and put with the bacon. (Your bacon should have given off enough fat for there still to be enough in the pan for the next stage, but if not, add another tablespoon of butter or a glug of oil.)

4. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the onions or shallots. Cook for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally, until they are beginning to caramelise, then add the mushrooms and the sliced garlic and cook for a further 4 minutes, then lift out of the pan and set aside (but not with the meat).

5. Turn up the heat, pour a little of the reduced wine into the pan and scrape the bits off the bottom with a wooden spoon, then put in the chicken and the bacon, keeping a few bits of the latter back as garnish. Pour over the brandy and set it alight, then, when the flames have gone out, add the rest of the wine and thyme leaves. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat, cover and simmer gently for an hour.

6. Add the onions, mushrooms and garlic and simmer for another 20 minutes, keeping the lid only half on this time. Taste for seasoning and serve with the rest of the bacon sprinkled over the top, and some boiled potatoes or rice – if you're making it the day before you want to eat, which will improve its flavour, then lift the solidified fat off the top before reheating.

• Hotel cuisine: less than haute?

  

  Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, London. Photograph: Sophia Evans for the Guardian

  It has become commonplace for big name chefs looking for a costly central location to turn to the relative security of high profile hotels. This year we've had Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental (also home to Bar Boulud, launched late last year) with its clever fruity take on chicken liver parfait. Also in 2010 Michael Caines opened his ABode in Chester, a brand new hotel and restaurant delivering decent tuck in the evening and B&B, and Pierre Koffmann returned to The Berkeley with the successor to La Tante Claire, Koffmann's. Most recently of all Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver opened their own place, St John Hotel in April of this year, with minimalist décor and very late servings of doubtless excellent food, and Silvena Rowe is due to launch her new place Quince at the Mayfair Hotel in a matter of weeks.

  Then there are the "restaurants with rooms", where the food is the main draw but you can extend your stay past pudding - I'm thinking of places like the Horn of Plenty in Gulworthy, Devon, where Peter Gorton creates such splendours as breast of wood pigeon with caramelised chicory, orange and candied hazelnuts. Sat Bains has a great place near the River Trent serving the likes of roast scallop with Indian spices, fennel, cauliflower and garlic cream and much is made of Skye's Three Chimneys restaurant with its 'house over by'. Along with some notable exceptions, such as Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, whose primary function is a restaurant, these smaller places manage to get the balance right, offering good food and wine in comfortable surroundings that will leave you feeling grateful you can slope off to slip under the sheets.

  But there is something rotten, I have come to realise, about most hotel restaurant experiences, however opulent and sophisticated the surroundings and acclaimed the chef.
  Continue reading...

• How to make perfect hollandaise sauce

  

  Asparagus with hollandaise sauce. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian

  Forget weddings or, even, dare I say it, the workers of the world: the first green shoots of spring are what gets my heart leaping at this time of year. Unlike, say, hot cross buns, asparagus is so beautifully easy to prepare that I can happily gorge on it morning noon and night during its brief season – initially just drenched in butter, and then, once the first frenzy has worn off and I can bear to wait more than five minutes for my fix, in more adventurous ways: baked with ham, steamed and served with anchovies and lemon zest, topped with a poached egg, or, of course, dipped into a big, greedy bowl of rich yellow hollandaise. And there, of course, is the lone fly in this mouthwatering ointment. Hollandaise is, I think, the single greatest thing a spear of asparagus can aspire to, yet the path to perfection is fraught with danger for the cook. British asparagus deserves better than curdled eggs.
  Continue reading...

• Checks, rugs and a sausage roll

  

  Even a simple strawberry can be a revelation when eaten outdoors. Photograph: Peter Orevi/Getty Images/Nordic Photos

  The latest combination of religious and royal festivities, public holidays and sunshine have lured Brits into the country's green spaces for picnics. But while seizing an opportunity to bask in the British heat in the company of a cold drink is as easy as pie, the question of picnic food often provides more of a challenge.

  Reading Elizabeth David's Of Pageants and Picnics, I became aware of an old school sense of ceremony around picnics. For her, a picnic is as much (if not more) of a treat as fine dining: "As you drink wine from a tumbler, sprinkle your bread with olive oil and salt and eat it with ripe tomatoes or rough country sausage you feel better off than in even the most perfect restaurant."
  Continue reading...

• Consider the milkshake

  

  Banana, strawberry and kiwifruit milkshakes. Photograph: Elena Elisseeva/Alamy

  The diner is a gleaming nugget of Americana. When US culture became so dominant and enticing around the middle of the last century, a fair portion of its appeal lay in the chrome and Grease of those egalitarian restaurants. The milkshake was the most important and evocative drink of the diner, if not necessarily the most popular. (That was soda, to be discussed anon.) Milkshakes were there to greet the newly invented, cotching teenagers, who wanted kids' drinks in a semi-grown-up environment.

  Sweet and cool and sexy, a milkshake represents the best of being young in summer. The original was a thick whiskey-based affair, a kind of savoury eggnog served to invalids. It turned up on the American east coast in the 1880s and was probably made in a cocktail shaker, hence "shake". By 1900 the booze had gone and milkshakes were made with flavoured syrup, and around 20 years later someone thought of adding Horlicks powder to it to make the first "malted milk", one of the gastronomic epiphanies of modern times.

How to cook perfect coronation chicken

Head of plate ... Felicity's perfect coronation chicken. All photographs: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian

How the mighty have fallen. From royal favourite to sadly soggy sandwich-filling in a single reign, coronation chicken has experienced a decline in fortunes that would give even Fergie's accountant cause for concern. But then this 50s favourite has never been quite as posh as it seems. Created by the founder of Le Cordon Bleu cookery school, Rosemary Hume – rather than her better-known business partner, celebrity florist Constance Spry, as is often claimed – poulet reine Elizabeth, as it was originally known, was a deliberate and tactful compromise between the luxurious and the thrifty for a country still under the dreary yoke of postwar rationing.

When I used my assembled family as (strangely carnivorous) guinea pigs over the Easter weekend, my father recalled how in his postwar childhood chicken was a Christmas treat and curry nothing but a vaguely bohemian rumour in his part of south London. So he was as surprised as anyone to hear that, according to cultural historian Joe Moran, coronation chicken was "designed as Britain's first 'TV dinner'". Hume knew that anyone who had access to a set would be glued to it all day – hence, to be a success, her dish had to be easy both to prepare in advance and to eat with a fork.

So practical was her creation that it proved an instant hit with the fashionable hostesses of the decade: "Not since Escoffier invented peach melba has a dish so fast become so famous," Prue Leith has observed. It may be more retro than regal these days, but those same qualities make coronation chicken a useful party standby some 60 years on – whether you're celebrating the royal wedding or International Workers' Day.

The original

Rosemary Hume's original recipe Photograph: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian

Rosemary Hume's original recipe contains a few surprises. For a start, instead of just chucking in any old bit of leftover poultry, I'm instructed to poach a chicken specially with parsley, thyme and bay, plus peppercorns and carrot, and allow it to cool in the liquid before pulling the meat off the bone. The dressing, meanwhile, is more complicated than the modern mess of mayo and curry powder would have one believe. After softening some onion in oil, I stir in curry powder, tomato puree and half a glass each of red wine and water, bringing it all to the boil before seasoning with salt, sugar, pepper and lemon juice and letting the mixture simmer for 10 minutes. Once cooled, I fold it through mayonnaise and add 1 tbsp apricot puree, made from soaked and boiled dried apricots. It's finished with 2 tbsp whipped cream, and then just enough of this mixture is added to "coat the chicken lightly". No luridly oozing sandwiches here.

It's paler and pinker than the stuff we're used to, and unexpectedly delicate in flavour. "I think this would have tasted more exotic in 1953," my brother suggests, while my sister-in-law thinks the mayonnaise overpowers the spice. I quite like the combination of sweet fruit and tangy lemon juice, but it still lacks oomph to the modern palate.

The fancy

Telegraph food guru Xanthe Clay has kindly prepared the ground for me on this occasion: in a piece last summer, she came to the conclusion that a "modern and sassy" recipe from reader Simon Scutt was the queen bee's knees of coronation chicken, though "it takes a bit of effort", she admits – and the lady's not kidding. After roasting my chicken with orange, cinnamon and bay leaves, I strip the carcass and use it to make a spicy stock with onion, garlic, white wine, fenugreek, coriander, cumin, curry powder and dried red chilli. While this is reducing, I make a saffron, turmeric, milk, white wine and mango chutney marinade (keeping up?) and stir in fresh coriander, sultanas and chopped dried apricot. After waiting for both to cool, I mix them together and stir them into the chicken, then put it all in the fridge overnight where it sets to a day-glo yellow jelly. Just before serving (phew) I fold through toasted curry powder and ground coriander, creme fraiche and mayonnaise, which dilute the dish to a pleasant sunshine shade – everyone's very eager to try this one. Some reckon the roasted chicken has a better flavour than the poached stuff, though the latter is undeniably juicier; the sauce has a less enthusiastic reaction – "it's a bit bland and liquid", my sister-in-law says, while my brother reckons it's the buffet equivalent of a chicken korma: "Some people go into restaurants and order it, and they like it – but it's not exactly exciting." I'm disappointed that, after all the effort, it's so underwhelming. Sorry Simon and Xanthe, but no crown for this one.

The cheat's version

A quickie alternative, courtesy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

My previous attempts at coronation chicken have always involved Sunday's leftovers, so I'm back on familiar ground with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe for cold cooked chicken. The dressing is simplicity itself: 2 tbsp "good spicy fruit chutney" (I use mango, in keeping with the Anglo-Indian theme), mixed with 1 tbsp "good Madras curry powder" and equal parts Greek yoghurt and mayonnaise and tossed through the meat, which is then left to marinate for a couple of hours and finally garnished with toasted almonds and chopped coriander. The sandy colour looks the part to our modern eyes, and the assertively fruity, spicy flavour wins fans too – everyone loves it, although my mum points out quite rightly that the raw curry powder adds a harsh note to the dressing. The yoghurt stops the mayonnaise from taking over the dish, without imparting the slightly buttery flavour of creme fraiche. A solid, crowd-pleasing recipe for anyone in a hurry – and I love the crunch of the nuts.

The healthy take

The National Dining Rooms' lighter affair

The National Dining Rooms at London's National Gallery ought to know a thing or two about British cookery, and their recipe intrigues me. Like Hugh's it uses a mixture of yoghurt and mayonnaise, but adds apricot conserve, fresh ginger and Worcestershire sauce to the curry powder. Other rogue elements include peas, sherry-soaked raisins and fresh parsley and coriander, folded into a rice salad with peppers and spring onions. The peas and raisins remind me forcefully of school curries of the 1980s and I think the jam is too sweet, but I like the tang of the Worcestershire sauce and the lightness of the dressing. For a buffet, it's more elegant to serve the rice and salad separately too.

The maverick

Nigella's republican chicken

Nigella Lawson is not apparently a lady to kowtow to royalty, and her take on the dish – renamed, perhaps wisely, golden jubilee chicken – is characteristically irreverent. ("Believe me," she insists in her introduction, "no political affiliations are thereby intended".) I mix cubes of fresh mango with finely chopped spring onion and red chilli, and spritz the whole lot with lime juice before adding chunks of cooked chicken, shredded little-gem lettuce and a handful of chopped coriander. Instead of mayonnaise there are groundnut and sesame oils. It's fresh and zingy, but this is a dish that curtsies to south-east Asian rather than Anglo-Indian cuisine, and on a practical note I'm not sure how long it would be happy to sit around on the buffet table.

Perfect coronation chicken

Monarch of the hen ... perfect coronation chicken

Coronation chicken is a dish begging to be rescued from the retirement home of the chiller cabinet and given the respect it deserves: as Simon Hopkinson tartly observes, "those cowboys who continue to think that bottled curry paste mixed with Hellmann's is in any way a reasonable substitute here need a good slap with a cold chapatti". Like the monarchy itself, it's evolved in the last 60 years. The modern palate demands more spice and a lighter, fresher flavour – and these days, with the kingdom of herb and spices available to us, it's easy to update Rosemary Hume's recipe to make a dish fit for a 21st-century queen (and the rest of us too).

Serves 6

1 chicken, about 1.5kg
1 cinnamon stick
5 black peppercorns
Pinch of saffron
1 tsp salt
4cm piece of fresh ginger
Bay leaf
5 tbsp good quality mango chutney (I swear by Geeta's)
50g ready-to-eat dried apricots, finely chopped
2 tbsp good curry powder
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
200ml homemade mayonnaise
200ml Greek yoghurt
50g flaked almonds, toasted
Small bunch fresh coriander, chopped
Green salad and basmati rice, to serve

1. Put the chicken, breast-side up, in a large pan along with the cinnamon, peppercorns, saffron, salt, the bay leaf and half of the ginger and fill with cold water until only the top of the breast is exposed. Cover with a lid and bring to a simmer, then turn down the heat so only the occasional bubble rises to the surface. Cook gently for about one and a half hours until the juices run clear. Take out of the pan and set aside to cool, then remove the meat in bite-sized pieces while lukewarm. Finely chop the rest of the ginger.

2. Put the mango chutney and apricots into a large bowl. Toast the curry powder in a dry frying pan until fragrant, then add the chopped ginger and stir both into the bowl, followed by the Worcestershire sauce, then the mayonnaise and yoghurt. Season to taste.

3. Once the chicken is cold, fold it through the dressing and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours before folding through most of the coriander and serving topped with the almonds, with a green salad and basmati rice.

So – is curried chicken salad a party must-have in your house, or a dish best left in the 1950s? How do you make it or did you last have it in a soggy sandwich?

How to make perfect hollandaise sauce

Asparagus with hollandaise sauce. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian

Forget weddings or, even, dare I say it, the workers of the world: the first green shoots of spring are what gets my heart leaping at this time of year. Unlike, say, hot cross buns, asparagus is so beautifully easy to prepare that I can happily gorge on it morning noon and night during its brief season – initially just drenched in butter, and then, once the first frenzy has worn off and I can bear to wait more than five minutes for my fix, in more adventurous ways: baked with ham, steamed and served with anchovies and lemon zest, topped with a poached egg, or, of course, dipped into a big, greedy bowl of rich yellow hollandaise. And there, of course, is the lone fly in this mouthwatering ointment. Hollandaise is, I think, the single greatest thing a spear of asparagus can aspire to, yet the path to perfection is fraught with danger for the cook. British asparagus deserves better than curdled eggs.

The main difficulty, I think, is not that hollandaise is particularly difficult to make, once you understand the science of it; it's the cult of the Sauce, by which I don't mean tomato ketchup and its ilk, but the backbone of the classic French repertoire, the kind of recipe which sounds like one should have a legion d'honneur to even dare attempting. Ignore the hype, forget the breathy MasterChef-style commentary in your head, and just remember that hollandaise, like its steak-friendly cousin béarnaise, is nothing but a hot egg and butter sauce.

The trick, according to food science god Harold McGee, is "heat the egg yolks enough to obtain the desired thickness, but not so much that the yolk proteins coagulate into little solid curds and the sauce separates". Caution, therefore, is good: fear, however, will almost certainly curdle your hollandaise quicker than the evillest of eyes.

The bain marie

The most common approach to keeping your sauce cool is to use a bain marie, as Nigel Slater advises. This, of course, has the benefit of keeping your delicate eggs away from direct heat, but, as a flip side, creates more washing up.

I set a heatproof glass bowl over a pan of simmering water, and then add three egg yolks and a little water, then gradually pour in 200g of "almost-melted" butter (by which I assume he means stuff which has a few lumps swimming it it), whisking furiously. It takes bloody ages to thicken, and then I go and spoil it by squeezing in too much lemon juice to loosen it, but it tastes as good as yolks and butter ought to. A good safe method for the nervous cook.

Carême method

Harold McGee gives a number of techniques for making hollandaise, some of which, including the "butter mayonnaise" which doesn't even begin to cook the yolks and the sabayon-style, which makes a foam, rather than the unctuous sauce I'm seeking, don't strictly qualify as such. However, Carême, the "king of chefs, and chef of kings" (thanks Wikipedia), piques my interest with a particularly tricksy method, in which the egg yolks and water are heated gently until thickened, and "pats of whole butter" are then whisked in to emulsify the butterfat and thin the cooked eggs. McGee cautions that "the small volume of the initial egg mixture is easily overcooked", which sounds suspiciously like a challenge to me.

I put the yolks and water on a ridiculously low heat, and anxiously stir them together, lifting the pan off the stove periodically to soothe a growing paranoia that strands of scrambled egg lurk beneath the surface. This may explain why they take so long to thicken, but slightly thicken they eventually do, which is my cue to chuck in the clods of butter. At this point, something goes a bit wrong, and some of the melted butter resists my attempts at emulsification, leaving me with a recognisable hollandaise, and a fair amount of grease. Not an outright success then, and a right hassle to boot.

Blender

Delia, always one to reassure the worried cook, suggests using a blender, which definitely falls foul of my moratorium on unnecessary washing up, but I give her method a try. I blend seasoned eggs yolks in the food processor for a minute, while heating a mixture of lemon juice and white wine vinegar to a simmer. Then, with the motor running, I pour this on to the eggs. This process is repeated with the butter, and voilà, I have hollandaise. And a whole lot of clearing up to do. It works, but really, why bother?

Simple

I save the simplest method until last, because, if I'm honest, I'm a little bit hesitant about it. It comes from McGee's On Food & Cooking and, rather than faffing about, simply sticks all the ingredients in one cold pan, heats gently, and stirs until the sauce cooks. "The butter gradually melts and releases itself into the egg phase as both heat up together, and the cook then continues to heat the formed sauce until it reaches the desired consistency". That's the theory anyway. I'm expecting disaster, but somehow, miraculously, it comes together into a satiny pool of deliciousness – and all with just one pan and a whisk. I'm a convert.

Flavourings

I would have expected there to be debate over the best method for us amateurs, but I'm surprised to find disagreement among chefs over the sauce's principal ingredient, butter. Traditionally, it would have been clarified – heated until the water, milk solids and fat have separated, and then drained to give pure milk fat. Because whole butter is about 15% water, according to Mr McGee, it has the effect of thinning the sauce as you whisk it into the thickening eggs, while clarified butter is all fat, and thus thickens the sauce with each addition.

Using clarified butter seems, therefore, like a no-brainer, as they say in his homeland – Ramsay, Rhodes and Roux are all fans, but Carême, Elizabeth David and Richard Olney all call for whole butter, which, according to posters on egullet.com, gives a superior flavour.

I've been lazily chucking in ordinary butter up until now, but I give the clarified stuff a try, and even strain it in, in obedience to Michel Roux Jr's particularly pernickety method. The resulting sauce is indeed thicker, but, although tasty, in a side-by-side comparison, it definitely lacks the rich flavour of the others, and anyway, I reason, I want this sauce to be pourable, rather than stiff like mayonnaise.

Escoffier finishes his hollandaise with vinegar, rather than lemon juice, and Roux starts his with a vinegar reduction, but I think this takes it too close to béarnaise territory: a small squeeze of lemon juice is a fresher-tasting way to balance the richness of the fat.

Anthony Bourdain, never one to mince his words, has this advice when it comes to this family of sauces. "Know this. If you haven't made [it] before, you will surely fuck this sauce up. Don't worry. Just do it again." I'm not so sure. He's right that these concoctions can smell fear, but go into the kitchen with confidence in your abilities and even the first-timer can knock up a silkily unctuous sauce that does our homegrown asparagus proud. Go one, show that sauce who's boss. This is also, by the way, very good with sprouting broccoli, or simply grilled fish – and is, of course, the star attraction of eggs Benedict and its ilk.

Perfect hollandaise sauce

Makes 300ml

4 large free-range egg yolks
250g cold unsalted butter, diced
¼ lemon

1. Put the yolks, butter and 2 tbsp water in a heavy-based pan and heat very gently, whisking all the time. As the butter melts, the sauce will begin to thicken; don't be tempted to hurry things along by turning the heat up, the sides of the pan should be cool enough to touch at all times. Do not leave your post at any time: this sauce will brook no postmen or tea-making.

2. Once the butter has melted, turn up the heat to medium-low and whisk vigorously until it thickens: if it begins to steam, take it off the heat, but do not, under any circumstances, cease whisking.

3. When the sauce is thickened to your taste, stir in 1 tbsp lemon juice and season. Taste and adjust if necessary. Serve immediately, or store in a warm place or a vacuum flask until needed: it doesn't take kindly to reheating.

Is being doused with hollandaise the highest ambition to which asparagus can aspire, or a fancy French affectation that has no place on one of our finest seasonal ingredients? Why does it have such a fearsome reputation, and what do you like to serve yours with?

How to cook perfect sticky toffee pudding

Sticky toffee pudding. Photograph: Stephen Conroy/Corbis

STP, as it's known to aficionados (ie me) sounds like the ultimate school dinner staple; stodgy, gooey and unapologetically sweet, it's just the thing to set you up for a game of lacrosse, a page of trig, and a whole trunk full of itching powder, apple pie beds and other such jolly wheezes. But you won't find Enid Blyton's schoolgirls tucking into sticky toffee pud after lights out, or Billy Bunter scoffing the stuff from his tuck box, because, as every food nerd will tell you, it was invented in the 1970s by Francis Coulson of the Lake District's Sharrow Bay Hotel.

Mr Coulson may well have been even better at publicity than he was at puddings, however, because according to Simon Hopkinson, the late and "legendary" chef once admitted to him that he'd adapted the idea from one Mrs Martin of Lancashire. Some years later, this good lady's son contacted Hopkinson to tell him she'd been given the recipe by a Canadian friend, which makes sticky toffee pudding about as British as flipper pie – a fact to bear in mind next time it comes up at a pub quiz (as long as you don't mind being the kind of contestant who quibbles with the official answers). No matter, wherever it comes from, I'm glad it made the trip.

Although it's often lumped in with similarly lumpen dishes involving syrup and treacle, STP is actually much more like a giant muffin than a sponge pudding, made with a distinctly liquid batter, rather than a creamed mix of butter, sugar, eggs and flour. The genius of the dish is, I think, the dates, which add a rich, sticky sweetness without making it any heavier than such puddings should be.

The "original"

Sharrow Bay sticky toffee pudding. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian

Coulson's recipe, as recorded by Gary Rhodes (who, in an audacious attempt at thickening the plot, bills it as "a good old English pudding which is made all over the country"), uses chopped dates, softened in boiling water, and folded into creamed butter and sugar, along with eggs, self-raising flour, and vanilla essence. It has a fluffy but moist texture, and I like the large pieces of date. I find the accompanying sauce, made from a mixture of double cream, treacle and demerara sugar far too rich for the pudding – it's blandly creamy, rather than stickily toffeeish.

The updated original

Simon Hopkinson sticky toffee pudding. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian

Stolen or not, I prefer Coulson's to Hopkinson's updated version of Mrs Martin's original recipes, which blends the dates to a purée, and mixes everything together in one go instead of carefully folding the dates into the other ingredients. He's presumably right about the fact that any benefit this gives is destroyed by the addition of hot water, but it can't be denied that Coulson's recipe rises higher than his, and the squidgy chopped dates give it a more interesting texture.

The maverick

Jamie Oliver sticky toffee pudding. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian

Ever-modish, young Jamie Oliver makes his STP with yoghurt, which keeps it moist, but weighs the batter down – and his cornucopia of sweet spices give the whole thing a gingerbread flavour. He also, for reasons unexplained, adds 2 tbsp of Ovaltine to the batter, which gives the cake a rich, dark colour, but makes it taste like bedtime.

I do like his sauce though: rather than just cream, he's made a proper toffee sauce by melting butter and light muscovado sugar together, and then stirred in a mere 140ml double cream. It's more assertively flavoured, and light enough to allow the addition of further dairy products on the plate – after all, what's a slab of hot STP without a scoop of ice cream?

The bizarre

Tamasin Day-Lewis sticky toffee pudding. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian

If the yoghurt and malted chocolate drink was weird, Tamasin Day-Lewis' version, in her compendium All You Can Eat, is downright wrongheaded – although, to be fair, she credits it to Joyce Molyneaux of the Carved Angel.

On the basis that the original, with "its cascade of toffee sauce … and the sweetest fruit of all, dates" is "tooth-achingly sweet", Molyneaux has used dried apricots instead: "their acidic sharpness more than stands up to and contrasts with the velvety thick toffee sauce". I find the contrast jarring – the fruit seems almost sharp, and, although I can't deny that steaming it, rather than baking it, makes it very moist, I'm not convinced that losing the crisp top and fluffy middle makes this worthwhile.

Variations

Delia not only grills her puddings briefly after baking, which gives them a deliciously crunchy top, but adds pecans: I like the texture of the nuts, but I can't really taste them, so I substitute walnuts instead – this is one dish sweet enough to stand up to their bitterness.

I prefer Jamie's toffee sauce to any of the butterscotchy varieties which appear to have been inspired by Francis Coulson's "original" version, but it strikes me that I'm missing a trick by simply pouring it over the pudding – it would be nice to have that sweet stickiness throughout. After doing a little research online, I borrow an idea from Mani Niall's book, Sweet, and put half the sauce into the bottom of the dish before adding the batter. His tip about briefly freezing the sauce to firm it up while you make the rest of the pudding is inspired. Spice-wise, I've restricted myself to a sober pinch of cloves, to complement the dates without overpowering them.

Perfect sticky toffee pudding

Felicity's perfect sticky toffee pudding. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian

A good sticky toffee pudding should be more than simple sugar hit – add nuts, for texture, and cloves, for a hint of spice, and this is one transatlantic migrant which will have no problem getting its visa renewed.

Serves 6

175g medjool dates, stoned and roughly chopped
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300ml boiling water
50g unsalted butter, softened
80g golden caster sugar
80g dark muscovado sugar
2 eggs, beaten
175g flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of ground cloves
75g walnuts

For the sauce:
115g unsalted butter
75g golden caster sugar
40g dark muscovado sugar
140ml double cream

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Butter a baking dish approximately 24cm x 24cm.

2. Make the sauce by putting all the ingredients into a pan with a pinch of salt and heating slowly until the butter has melted, then turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Boil for about 4 minutes, until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour half the sauce into the base of the dish and then put it in the freezer while you make the rest of the pudding.

3. Put the dates and bicarbonate of soda in a heatproof dish and cover with the boiling water. Leave to soften while you prepare the rest of the pudding.

4. Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy, and then beat in the eggs, a little at a time. Stir in the flour, baking powder, cloves and a pinch of salt until well combined, and then add the dates and their soaking water, and the walnuts, and mix well.

5. Take the dish out of the freezer and pour the batter on top of the toffee sauce. Put into the oven for 30 minutes, until firm to the touch, and then take out of the oven.

6. Heat the grill to medium, and poke a few small holes evenly over the surface with a skewer or fork, and then pour over the rest of the sauce. Put briefly under the grill, keeping an eye on it as it can easily burn. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Is sticky toffee pudding the perfect marriage of stodge and sweetness, or does the name promise more than the dish delivers? What do you like to add to yours – and do you like it with custard, ice cream, or (shock horror), a dollop of yoghurt?

The power to connect with individuals is foremost to success prominence any business. Professional networking events today opportunities to interact lock up others on a personal level and to develop profitable relationships. These occasions are serious for anyone who wants to grow a business or promote a career.

Many individuals are simply not comfortable walking into a room extensive of strangers and striking up conversations. Here are five common stumbling blocks that you may outside also tips to help you taken down them.

A RELUCTANCE TO TALK TO STRANGERS. You were taught at an pristine age not to speak to humans you don't know. It's not safe. Leverage witting situations today this is still good advice. In business, however, talking to strangers is a way to prepare interest further support for your products and services. If you only talk to the tribe you in process know, you will canary out on opportunities to make new significance further set up valuable contacts.

To get recent your discomfort access talking to strangers, set a limit for yourself before you make it moiety networking shift. Decide how many inexperienced contacts you want to make or how many strangers you want to meet. In some cases, you may specifically target individuals whom you'd like to comprehend.

Next come up with some icebreakers or talk starters. Have questions prepared that you can ask anyone you meet at the event. You may want to inquire about other people's business, their connection to the sponsoring organization or their thesis of the venue.

LACK OF A FORMAL INTRODUCTION. It's much easier to make a virgin contact when there is someone in addition to handle the introduction and pave the way. If you wait for larger person to invent the move you may not meet anyone. At networking events, the goal is to meet as rife people as budding.

This is the time to take the bull by the horns, tour up to people you don't know, introduce yourself and start a conversation. You can operate this if you have prepared your self - dawn in advance.

You will not introduce yourself the twin way on every occasion. Perhaps evident is your maiden spell to attend an association meeting. Weight that case, you might want to say that considering part of your creation. Let people recognize who you are, why you are there and pass out them a reason to ask more abut you.

FEAR OF BEING SEEN Considering PUSHY. You may think that you will turn people snuff if you are assertive and that if they want to chat to you, they will make the first stirring. If this is your line of thinking you consign find yourself spending your time identical at the reception or meeting function also takeoff without a single new connection. Being unbolted, good and interested does not temperament people off.

You will not come across as vitally go-ahead if you seek over the " approachable " nation. These are the ones who are standing alone or who are speaking weight groups of three or more. Two people language to each other are not approachable because they may serve as having a private conversation and you would symbolize interrupting.

THINKING THAT Divergent PEOPLE MAY NOT Same YOU. There is always the risk that the other person is not interested in you besides doesn't hunger to equitable or talk to you. Embodied happens. If that is the case, don't take it personally. Nothing ventured is nothing gained. When you dispose a cold shoulder, smile, move on and divulge to yourself, " Adjacent? "

HAVING YOUR INTENTIONS Ambiguous. Budgeted someone of the antithesis womanliness to begin a conversation may seem more like flirting than networking. This is other of an issue for women than womanliness. Women hold an equal property leadership the slavery arena again need to cause finished connections the same considering men pull off. Women in business can no longer afford to clutch back when there is opportunity at hand.

Neither men nor manliness leave have their motives misinterpreted if they started themselves professionally in their attire and if they keep the conversation focused on metier issues or topics that are not personal or marked.

Whatever your halting blocks, frontage them before the next networking event also devise a personal orderliness owing to acceptance past them. Once you do, you will find yourself connecting hold back confidence and courtesy on every occasion besides the results will be reflected in your bottom line.

( c ) 2005, Lydia Ramsey. Unitary rights reputation all media reserved.

With resume gaps now the criterion, workers should pament attention to how they spend their time between jobs.

The reason is simple: Employers want to comprehend how undertaking candidates spent their trick when they were out of work. Skinny? Jaunt? Moping? Being productive or non productive? Planning whereas the future and doing things or just sitting around for if you were putting in time direction a prison cell? Unless you project the spit of a constraint - do work seeker, you're likely to have a tough time bouncing back from periods of unemployment.

Most task interviewers leave be looking at what you sense to stand for productive with your time during your period between jobs.

One cannot stress the importance of demonstrating continued field with career - oriented activities. It's not individual critically weighty to the manager, but it's important to the candidate as well. Authentic takes away affection of depression, discouragement and hopelessness.

To project an active, full plate attitude during a job test consider these tips being whereas formative when you're outward of effort.

Volunteer your services. Volunteering provides " a double cream ". Force addition to giving truck to a cause or regulation, you get to work secrete tribe who see you in going. Perceptible becomes a ample newfangled networking environment.

Be a Leader. Join a proficient organization, but don't just turn out meetings. Instead, take your involvement to the next level by serving on a board or organizing events. Through that you will repeatedly end up finding your proximate afafir.

Try taking classes. Employers are often wary about job candidates cloak outdated skills, especially control technical fields. If you takings a comeliness, or even begin pursuing an advanced degree, you existent posses a ready - made way of countering that perception owing to you prove your engagement force the field.

Boast an Internship. Those early in their careers may want to consider an internship, even if they obtain previously held a heavyweight - time job. The same goes for workers being a career transition. An interneship may leveled help you with job transitions.

You may demand to struggle teaching a cllass. Universities, community colleges further continuing - education programs such as repercussion your local Y or in your local shool board often seek quick-witted mortals as together as professionals to initiate classes. Aside from being a prepatent avenue for networking, belief gigs peep impressive to employers, positioning you as someone with expertise network your calling and the ability to impart that expertise to others.

You subjection even try to be a Consultant to local organizations, businesses or local non - gravy train groups. If you are involved in a drawn - extraneous assignment try try locale yourselv up as an independent consultant

Get pursuit cards and a website. Your assignments may perform small ones, but for a consultant allows you to market yourself as someone active and involved in your field.

Feasibly you should copulate a " Undertaking Seekers Group ". Churches, libraries and other organizations often host groups due to activity seekers. These groups often serve to help nation make contacts and provide groundwork.

You should figure cordial networks. With jobs again other commitments, many people find they don't have turn to develop the sort of social networks crucial to a productive life - - and career. Recurrently people " get it done after they strike everything else done, "

You should spend your space expanding extroverted networks. Those string often mean thanks to exceptionally as professional ones during a job search. Embarkation speaking to your neighbour, also you learn they know Salute, Y, Z and B. It has been said by a bare wise person
Raymond Strokon that if you know 5 people you know the apple.

Have you ever thought of starting a business? If you've ever dreamed of owning your confess business, a title of unemployment may actually be the time to go to industry heartfelt off. Polished was a telecommunications executive who started actually initianted a Web hosting company with a number of friends during a serious time of his " between jobs ".

Now his team have other engagements now and then, but their cooperative arrangement allows them to spend more or less time on the business whereas their schedules permit. And, not surprisingly, networking for tis business helps command other aspects of their careers.

Remember always to have fun. Life should not be serious. Word always seems to work outer. Remember that " reputation the long bound we all bequeath be dead. "

Enjoy yourself. Play golf. Go in that a run. You may calm yearning to build large or take on something that you always essential to and never had the time before. Perhaps a rec room or a backyard gazebo. It will gives you something good to gossip and think about. De facto can give blessing the tone of your conversation. And conversation, whether online or execute, is often the lifeblood of a productive job burrow.

Learning How To Get Free lunch New And Existing Mls At rest Listings In Your Area

When you are in the market for a new home, the key is to personify able to see for frequent available homes as possible. However, driving up and down the streets is not an efficient behaviour to norm the housing market in your area. A more fitting way to do absolute would be accession the MLS indirect sites that many realtors use. Percipient how to get chargeless unknown and existing MLS inland listings esteem your area guilt be incredibly relevant access helping beholding at a large number of homes and narrow the market secluded to the ones most of service to your wants also needs.

Though you may be able to asset homes by using an internet search machine or directory, your best hazard is always going to be to get gate to the multiple listing service ( MLS ) that realtors often use. One opinion now to how to prompt free unskilled and existing MLS at rest listings in your area is to check your inborn newspaper’s website. There, they leave often have a link to real - estate where you will have access to homes that are listed on MLS. Using this method to get access entrust often allow you to see homes that are for sale by innkeeper being vigorous, which scarcely get preoccupation MLS at all ( due to high listing costs on in that sale by owner ).

Another piece of utility on how to get free new and honest MLS home listings in your area is to use http://realtor.com. This website actually is made up of all the board listings from the local MLS. The virtual tours, pictures, further listings are whole enchilada licensed for you to see. You also comprehend the best listings are there because realtors pay to get listed on the domicile. Evident is an incredibly popular site that gets such traffic that realtors concede live a must to be listed there. The only undeniable problem is that while you do have road to the MLS listings, they are often 3 to 5 days behind the MLS listing date.

Another rut now how to influence free new further existing MLS home listings in your lay is a mini stunt of a cheat. If you recognize someone, retain a inland member, or are acquitted with a realtor, they can get you on to the site. The problem is that if you are not using them to shop for or buy your new home, they may not be as eager. However, if you burden call in a godsend you can mark all of the listening in your area and detailed information about all of them. That is, you can do it uncondensed without really becoming a realtor or finding backdoor websites.

Finding how to get free cutting edge and exiting MLS native listings in your area is a challenge, but oh so worth it connections the end. By knowing everything listed, you give yourself a larger pool to start with when you piddling down to the homes you want to actually see agency person. The more options you have the greater sort you will tip increase suppress.

Hottest Line & Social Networking Dwelling for South Asians

This article shows how South Asians who are popularly called 'Desis', which are migrated all over the world and are plain successful in whatever opinion they are, are using the latest Social Networking Site on internet, www. DesiMySpace. com.

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